


You Are (Not) Forgiven

by BlueOslo (orphan_account)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Jesse McCree & Genji Shimada Are Best Friends, M/M, Men Crying, Overwatch Family, Post-Fall of Overwatch, Sad, Therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:28:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 14,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22479436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/BlueOslo
Summary: Gabriel Reyes is trying to atone for his past. An old flame is willing to accept him, but is the rest of Overwatch ready to trust him again?Please leave comments on how I could make the style better or things I should work on to improve my writing!
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Reaper | Gabriel Reyes
Kudos: 17





	1. Redemption

"We're so screwed." Jesse McCree flatly stated as he saw the hordes of Omnics in the streets when the aircraft landed. "We're going to do our best, McCree. Even if that means that we end up taking a beating from it, we're going to protect others. That's why you came back, isn't it?" Looking at Morrison, he certainly hadn't aged well. Although, that was to be expected, after such a stressful ten or so years. He sighed and nodded. He looked over at Genji, who was polishing his sword. "How are _you_ feelin' about all this, Genj? I mean, back when Overwatch was still legit, it seemed like we had all the resources in the world at our disposal but now..." Genji did not respond. Morrison piped up, "I don't mean to harp on this, but it was kinda the two of you and Reyes that started the snowball that became the avalanche." Jesse bit the inside of his mouth. "Please don't talk about him." It still hurt Jesse to think about him. He still felt angry, sad, scared, and just about any other negative emotion you could think of about the Reaper.

The three of them stepped out of the aircraft and onto the roof. "Here's the plan. We're gonna go down there, and try to fight our way to the power plant, which is underneath the streets a few blocks that way. I have a device that Winston made for me, I dunno how it works, but he said it used stolen technology from some Talon operative that's going to set off a massive EMP and shut down all the Omnic fortifications and weapons within a good distance of here, that should give the ground forces within the city a better chance to not get overrun by the Omnics." Why did we land so far away?" Genji suddenly said, causing Jesse to look over at him, considering he had not spoken a single word the entire trip over. "Well, he speaks, Genji Shimada, as I live and breathe." McCree chuckled, and Genji gave a forced laugh.

Within the hour, all hell had broken loose.

They had progressed about 2/3 of the way there without a great deal of resistance, but soon found themselves surrounded by at least 50 Omnics, and as they shot and took them out, they were only replaced by more and more. "Dammit, I'm runnin' low on ammo! I brought as much as I could, Morrison, I'm sorry!" Jack grunted and fired a volley of Helix Rockets at a cluster of Omnics. "It's alright... I am too. I think we both knew what kind of mission this was when we got here. Getting all the way to the power plant was a miracle scenario, but the closer we get to it, the better chance activating the device has of connecting with it." Jesse nodded. He wiped the blood from his forehead, a gash sustained after being knocked down by a concussion grenade, and looked over at Genji, who had taken some heavy damages. He pulled his trigger and fired his last shot, taking out only a single Omnic. "That's just about it for me. When do we activate the thing?" "At the last possible second. It's going to take a few minutes to activate at this distance, so there's a decent chance we won't be alive by the time it does anything." Morrison replied, a hint of sadness to his voice.

McCree hid behind Morrison, throwing flashbangs at any groups of Omnics that got too close, giving Jack the precious few seconds to take them out. Genji had gotten close as well, throwing shurikens and occasionally deflecting bullets back at their firers. Soon, that too became futile as their overpowerment became imminent.

"Gentlemen... It's been an honor." Morrison said. He placed his finger on the switch. "You too, Morrison. Genji... ya were a brother to me." Genji nodded with a small bow, and in a characteristically terse manner, said only, "Likewise." They braced themselves.

The Omnics never overpowered them. Before they could, a cloud of black smoke had appeared, and almost every single one of the Omnics had blown up. There was so much smoke from the Omnics' destruction, that they couldn't even tell what was going on.

When the smoke cleared, they couldn't believe their eyes. There stood the Reaper, facing away from them and reloading his shotguns. “I-is that who I think it is?” Exclaims Genji. “Yeah. It is.” Jack coldly replies. He still hadn’t turned to look at them. Jesse, saying nothing, walks up behind him, lip quivering as he works up the courage to say something. “So... Ya came back after all?” The Reaper turned around and looked through him. Jesse reaches out to take off his mask, and he flinched, not used to anyone trying to do that, but Jesse is insistent and pulls it off. He doesn’t want to look at the younger man, so he averts his eyes and looks at the ground instead. Jesse reaches out and touches his face. He looked back at him, cheeks already wet with a single tear rolling down them. He was shocked when Jesse all of a sudden wrapped his arms around his back, and pulled him in. Who would ever want to kiss a man like him? An ugly, mutated, monster of what used to be a human being? And yet, he didn’t resist. “I missed you, Gabriel.” Hearing his own name proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. The floodgates opened and the man once known as Gabriel Reyes leaned into his ex’s arms, weeping loudly. “I-I’m so sorry, Jesse... I’m so sorry... P-please, forgive me..!” Jesse buries his face into Gabe’s shoulder and tries to keep himself from crying as well. “S-Shh..... it’s okay. It’s okay. We’re goin’ to be alright. I forgive you. I love you.” Jesse comforted him as he sobbed, and eventually became a group hug as Genji joined the two of them, Reyes chuckling through his tears. Jack Morrison looked on with a mix of suspicion and fear.


	2. Reminder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After rescuing McCree, Genji, and Morrison, Gabriel is relieved to know that they're happy he's back. Jack on the other hand has several reservations about what exactly his intentions are.

Following their rescue by Gabe, the rest of the mission was easy. They planted the EMP device underground and crippled the Omnics' offenses. On the trip out of there, Jack could barely hear the conversation going on in the background, nor did he notice Jesse and Reyes not letting go of each others' hands the whole way back. He simply stared at the ground in utter disbelief at how foolish that the cowboy and his ninja friend were to be so quick to trust an internationally wanted terrorist.

Jack got up as the three former Blackwatch agents had their little reunion and went to the comms station on the ship. "Be ready for surprise. Old acquaintance showed up during mission. Do not trust him. I repeat, do not trust him." He sent his message off to several members who were sitting back at the de facto location, an old building that they were inhabiting until all the processing went through to re-approve the activities of Overwatch. After the incident in Paris, which had been rather well-handled by a group of the heroes, Genji included, public support for the re-creation of Overwatch. The public seemed to get a reminder that day of why they loved Overwatch to begin with. However, Jack was faced with a reminder of why he lost faith in it, as well as how he sustained injuries that gave him aches to that day, and it currently was being hugged by Jesse McCree.

He had to keep his distrust a secret from him.

When the ship landed back at HQ, Morisson and Genji exited, and were met by Reinhardt, Ana, and Mercy. When Gabriel exited, almost trying to hide behind McCree as they held hands, their thankfulness that the others had survived was swiftly replaced by shock. Reinhardt approached him, and without saying anything, pulled him in for a gigantic hug, after which Angela gave him a smaller one. Ana simply nodded and went to join Jack off to the side. "What the hell happened out there?" She asked of him. "We were screwed. We were up with our backs against the wall, and running out of ammo, and... he showed up. He saved us. Like nothing ever happened." She sighed. "And you don't trust him?" He looked back at her. "Why should I? This could all be a trick to get our guards down, and that idiot McCree is wrapped around his little finger." "Jesse loves him, Jack, of course he's going to want to forgive him. I'm not surprised about Angela and Rein, either." "And what about you?" He whispered. She was silent for several seconds.

"I think you're right. I don't trust him for a second."

"Good."

Later that evening, as the party to celebrate victory, as well as the return of their prodigal son, Jesse, quite pathetically, was unable to be taken off of Gabriel, who still covered his face with the mask. "Gabe, come on, just take the mask off. I don't care how ya look underneath, I saw it and still gave ya a kiss." Gabriel grumbled. "You might not care, but I do. I don't want the others to see me like this." "We know a guy like that now." A young voice called out. "And you must be...?" "Torbjorn's daughter. I've met you before, when I was a lot younger. "Yeah... Brigitte, right?" She nodded. "Come on, I'll introduce you to some of the other new faces we have around here." He got up and Jesse reluctantly let go of him. The two disappeared to maneuver around and meeting new people, but as he stood, he saw Jack whispering to Ana about something. He was reminded of how they two were the ones that led the charge against him when both he and Morrison officially died.

Jesse was starting to feel fairly exhausted by the time Brigitte was done, and had already gone back to his room. Before he fell asleep, there was a knock on the door. He opened it and smiled to see Gabe standing there. "Hey, darlin', what can I do for ya?" Gabe shrugged. "I-I was just wondering if I could spend the night here..." Jesse sighed. "Sorry, unfortunately we're still runnin' on fumes here, so my mattress can barely fit me. I think they'll set ya up somewhere. Feel free to stay here as long as ya want, though!" Gabe shook his head. "No, no, it's fine... I'll... See you tomorrow?" McCree chuckled. "Sounds like a plan." Before he could leave, Jesse hugged him. "I'm glad yer back, boss." Reyes whispered back to him, "So am I."


	3. Repair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe needs help.

Gabe traveled through the city at night. He was looking for a music shop, somewhere he could take Jesse the next day to surprise him. It felt strange to Reyes, to be living normally. After all, it was only until very recently that he had lived his life as a wanted terrorist, he didn't exactly go out looking for places to buy his boyfriend a new guitar.

Still wanting to avoid being seen, considering his form was still significantly aberrant from what a regular person would look like, he stayed in the back alleys, sneaking looks at the shops from the shadows. Soon, he would try to get Moira to try and reverse what she had done to him. He couldn't bear to look like this anymore.

Distracted, he didn't notice that his path had been blocked by two thugs. He sighed, rolled his eyes and went to go the other way, only to find three more in that direction. "What's with the getup, weirdo? Halloween was months ago." A few of the others chuckled. "Get OUT of my way." Gabe responded in his distinctly gravelly voice. "Ooooh, look who's all big and strong. By the sound of it, you're pretty up there in years, grandpa. So why don't you just let us help you out?" "Yeah, come on, old man, we just wanna look out for you!" "We charge though, we need everything in your wallet to ensure that no harm comes to ya!" "Reasonable fee for keeping the streets safe." They all went around, congratulating themselves. "I won't warn you again." Gabe tersely responded. They all laughed. "Just who the fuck do you think you are, you old faggot?" Gabe was only going to let them off with a few scrapes, but upon hearing that word, he was sent back to his childhood, being taunted by the other boys at his middle school for wanting to hold another boy's hand during recess, getting beat up because he got caught kissing one. Even in those times, as progressive as they were, teenagers were still cruel.

Gabe said nothing, and punched one of the thugs in the face, prompting the others to draw knives. Gabe went into his wraith form and got on the other side of them. "Woah, what the hell!?" One of them called out. Gabe chuckled. "Hell indeed." He said, before drawing the shotguns he had brought with him, concealed, out of force of habit and opened fire on them. Lead flew threw the air, and in a spray of red mist, they fell backward. They were all dead within seconds, and Gabe felt no remorse as he saw their chests explode, all practically piled together in a lake of blood in that back alley. "Worthless punks..." He muttered to himself. "What the hell is goin' on back-" Gabe didn't even think before he fired at the possible witness to the massacre.

"G-gabe..." He felt his blood go to ice. There, with his real arm practically blown to mincemeat at the shoulder, Jesse lay on the ground. Crimson spilled from him as well. "G-gabe, what the hell were ya th-thinkin'...?" Reyes began to hyperventilate as he used Jesse's serape to try and put pressure on the wound. Jesse cried out in pain. "N-no! It's too much damage... just go get help, you fuckin' moron..." He venomously spat at Gabe. "J-jesse, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" "GET HELP YOU BASTARD! N-never shoulda come back..." Gabe began to cry as he ran, screaming, pleading. "S-someone! We need help over here! Please! ANYONE!?" He was alone.

As luck would have it for Gabe, Jack was in the city. "J-jack, please, don't ask, come with me, Jesse's hurt! I need a biotic field, IMMEDIATELY!" He didn't even wait for a response before he grabbed Jack's arm and dragged him to where Jesse lay. "T-the fucker shot me... I think it's pretty bad..." Jack fumbled as he pulled out his biotic field before admonishing Gabe, "What the hell is wrong with you?" "I-I didn't mean to, it was an acci-" "SHUT UP!" Gabe sat in silence. Before long, Jesse had slipped into unconsciousness. "Dammit!" Jack cursed. "Wh-what is it?" "He's lost a lot of blood." Jack got over him and checked Jesse's pulse, immediately starting CPR after he checked. Gabe blew air into his mouth, but Jack gave up within 45 seconds. "He's gone, Gabe." "Don't say that! DON'T YOU SAY THAT TO ME!" "He's gone, and you killed him." Those words echoed in Gabe's ear. He began to panic.

Gabriel Reyes awoke in a cold sweat on the mattress that Angela had shown him to a few hours prior, after he left the party. Alone in the dark, with the light of the moon shining through his window, one of the most cold, callous, ruthless killers on the face of the Earth began to cry.

The next afternoon, he was laying down on a leather couch in Angela Ziegler's office. "So, what exactly was your dream about, Gabe?" She asked him in her accented voice. "You sound like a female version of Freud, asking me that." He chuckled. She was not as amused. "Gabriel, I have things to do, and I made a gap in my schedule because you called me at 3:00 AM in tears about a dream. Tell me what happened." He sighed. "I... I was attacked by muggers. They called me something that bullies would call me when I was younger. S-so, I killed them. No, that's not right... I massacred them. And I liked doing it." Angela blinked at him. "Well, Gabriel, your remorselessness about killing is why you were put in charge of Blackwatch to begin with. Are you remorseful now for all the people you-" He then cut her off. "And I heard someone else coming. Without thinking, I... I shot. It was Jesse. He bled out right in front of me, and the last words he spoke were him telling me that he wished I didn't come back." Angela nodded. "I see... You're afraid you're going to hurt Jesse?" Gabe shrugged. "I guess so. I don't know. I don't think I'm gonna shoot him, if that's what you mean, but I guess I don't want him to get hurt, physically or otherwise." She cocked her head at him. "Otherwise?" "Emotionally. Psychologically." She was scribbling something on her notepad. "You think you're going to hurt him?" "Well, I don't know, I just don't want my return to... dredge up any painful memories. I... I was awful. Not just to him, to everyone. I was so... angry. And I don't know if everyone will ever be able to forgive me, is all. Especially Jesse. He seemed happy to see me but... I think the reality is going to set in. Of what I've become. I didn't just stop calling myself Gabriel Reyes to hide. You all knew who the Reaper was. I called myself that because I thought of myself as dead... And now that I have a second chance potentially, I'm terrified I'm just going to hurt him more. I just want to repair some of the damage I've done, is all." Angela nodded. "Good." Gabe was silent for several seconds after this.

With a click of her pen after she finished writing, she told him, "Keep going."


	4. Reenter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe struggles to find his place in the everyday operations of the new Overwatch. Jack has a conversation with Reinhardt about his concerns.

"Were you paying attention at ALL, Reyes?" Jack spat at him? Gabe looked up at him, lost in thought. "Apologies... I've got a lot on my mind." Morrison scoffed. "You better do your best to ensure that doesn't interfere with your work. As I was saying, I want you to lay low for now and help out around HQ. You're still a wanted terrorist, after all, and we need to ensure that we don't erode our newfound support with the public by showing your face around." Gabe flinched. "Y-yes, Jack." He made a gruff _hmph_ and went on his way. _"What an asshole..."_ They simultaneously thought of each other.

Later, Winston was leaning over a map, staring at the intimate details of Null Sector movements over the past few weeks by their attack patterns. There appeared to be nothing to indicate exactly where they might be going next, nor when the attack would happen. He groaned and jumped as Gabriel announced himself. "So... What's got you down?" He said, awkwardly going into the room. "I'm fine here, really, I don't need help with anyt-" "Look, I know this is tough to deal with, but the faster we let the air clear about the past, the faster I don't have to avoid talking to you. Or most of the others in this organization for that matter." "...Fair enough." He replied with an adjustment of his glasses. "I can't make any sense of these Null Sector movements. Attacks appear to be happening nearly randomly. No rhyme or reason to their ordering or timing at all. Paris, Beijing, Munich, San Francisco, Kuala Lumpur... I don't see any pattern to it!"

Gabe looked over his shoulder, and saw the red pinpoints on the blue virtual world map. "What do the cities have in common? Is there anything that they could be after in each of these places?" He shook his head. "No. The attacks seem to be only for the sake of causing destruction and chaos in major population centers. Athena can't find any discernible pattern either." "It does seem random... Almost hopelessly so, I would say. It's a good strategy on their part, to try and stay unpredictable. But surely, they must be using something that helps them decide what to do next." Winston nodded. "Perhaps they're using a random number generator..." "How would that work?" Gabe asked. "Well... If they tell a computer to spit out a certain amount of random numbers, and translate that to coordinates, they can attack the closest city to those coordinates. You're right, it would be a very good strategy to stay unpredictable." Winston pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose again." "Wouldn't it be possible to hack into their computer in that case, just to get the dataset and not raise any alarms like trying to shut down their systems?" Winston laughed. "Yeah, alright. You'd have to be some sort of computer BEYOND genius to know how to crack that system. Even if you could get around all their protections they likely have set up, there's a decent chance they'd notice something without any other alterations. I'm not sure that there is anyone who can do it, and I'm not even sure that that's what they're doing." Gabe smiled. "...Hold that thought." He excitedly left to find a communicator.

Meanwhile, Jack pressed the alert button on Reinhardt's room. "ENTER!" Boomed the thick German accent from the other side. Like Jack wouldn't have been able to hear him speaking at a normal volume. "It's just me." He replied as he opened the door. "There's something I think we need to talk about." Reinhardt had stood to see him in, but sat down after he had announced who it was. "Ah. Well, what is it, mein American friend?" He cheerily asked. Jack sighed and scratched the back of his head. "It's about-" "I know." He cut him off, suddenly sounding much more somber. "I had hoped you had come to see me today for another reason." Jack spoke up. "So you understand why I don't think we can trust him." Reinhardt sighed this time. "Morrison... Sometimes you just need to let the past be the past." The accent made his _th_ s sound like _z_ s. "He tried to kill us, Rein! You and me! But you and Angela seemed to think that we should just _welcome_ him back like nothing ever happened? What the hell is the matter with the two of you?" "Jack. Dr. Ziegler and I remember that day just as well as you. What Gabriel did that day was horrible. But... he saved your life, did he not? If he wanted, he could have killed all three of you. We wouldn't have known. He could have killed all three of you and then completed your mission and said he tried his best to save you but was unsuccessful, and thus completed your mission alone, and we would have welcomed him back anyway for stopping the attack." Jack seemed only to get more frustrated. "But-" "I'm not going to tell him to leave. Especially not when Herr McCree seems so happy to see him again." "Screw what the kid wants, this is about protecting us! Gabriel Reyes is a killer, goddammit, and a ruthless one at that!" Reinhardt was silent for several seconds. "We all are, Jack."

On his comm unit from his Talon days, Gabe messaged back and forth. "Need hacker. Trying to make good on past sins. Can probably get you out of trouble too if you don't fuck up too badly." "Need more details. You should know I don't just take jobs because old Talon ops ask me to." Gabriel sighed. She sure as hell was difficult. "Hacking into Null Sector computer to find dataset of numbers. We don't have anyone else." There was no response for a minute and a half. "Who, exactly, is 'we'?" Gabe sighed. "Overwatch." There was no response for what felt like a year and a half this time. "I need lots of pay and a guarantee that I won't just get arrested before I even consider it." Gabe chuckled. "I'll see what I can do." He put his Talon unit down and picked up his new one he had gotten to contact the rest of the Overwatch team. _TEXT: RAM RANCH REJECT_ He chuckled at the nickname he had given him. He began to type. "Hey, u still up?"


	5. Rehabilitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe begins the process to reverse the damage that Moira had done to his body, and not all goes according to plan. A colleague of Gabe's from Talon arrrives.

Gabriel lay back on the table. He was in the medical center of the makeshift HQ. It was certainly the most developed section, in case any emergencies happened and Angela needed a good space to be able to save someone that couldn't be saved with a revival. Almost certain not to happen, but just in case. He felt utterly and completely exposed without his mask or any of his usual adornments that he had used to hide himself. He fidgeted his legs to try and see if he could somehow make time go faster, but to no avail. He looked outside of the room, where Jesse sat, smiling at him reassuringly and gave him a thumbs up. Angela entered the room.

"Good morning, Gabriel. Are you ready? This process... it's going to be complicated and there's a good chance it'll hurt. Your condition is... stable, for lack of a better word, as it is right now. Are you sure you'd like to go through with gene rehabilitation? I make no guarantees." Gabe shut his eyes. His future, as he saw it, was him off with Jesse somewhere quiet, sitting on a porch bench, and leaning against one another. He didn't look... the way he currently did. He looked normal. Not like some sort of phase-shifting, ghost-like failed experiment. Because that's what he felt like. He hated that feeling, and he hated himself when he looked in the mirror. He wanted it to end. "Yes. I'm sure." "Very well then. I'm going to put the mask on, and you're going to..." Angela noticed Gabe's wandering eyes over to the other window. "Jesse, you know you aren't supposed to watch. Please get out of here." Jesse grumbled and got up. He made a cheesy little hand heart for Gabe and went back to the lobby. He sat down in a chair and pulled out his comm. _TEXT: EDGELORD PAPÍ_ "I'm freaking the hell out, if anything goes wrong I just want you to know how much I love you." "Not that I think anything's going to go wrong." "I'm sure everything is going to work out, more or less." "I really hope it works on the first try." He did this for some time.

Meanwhile, Angela looked at the monitor that displayed his condition. Everything appeared to be... 'Normal' wasn't nearly the first word she'd use, but for the life signs of Gabriel Reyes, this was about as close to normal as she could hope. His heart was seemingly off the charts in rate, yet also practically nonexistent. His cell tissue seemed to randomly die and almost instantly get replaced. Hopefully the anesthesia would slow this process down. She looked at his face. Despite everything, he still seemed to be around the same age as he was when he had been first experimented on. Despite the aberrations and anomalies in this composition of his body, and the purple/black smoke that seemed to exude from his skin, he still looked like a human. It was the most vulnerable she had ever seen him. As the rapid decay/regrowth seemed to slow as he slipped further into deep unconsciousness, she inserted the IV into both of his arms. She was unprepared for what happened next.

Jesse continued to text in the lobby, when a strange looking woman came through the door. He stood up. "Hey, who're you, ain't no one's supposed to-" "What are you supposed to be, some kind of a mascot?" Jesse recoiled. "H-hey!? Where do ya get the nerve to-" "I'm looking for Reaper. Or, you might know him as Gabriel Reyes. Where is he?" He cocked his head. "Y-you're lookin' for Gabe? What do ya want with him?" He defensively asked. "What HE wants with ME, more precisely. He called me in to help some giant gorilla with some computer issues. Who exactly are YOU, by the way? I've reviewed all files on Overwatch agents, and I have never seen anyone that looks like you. I'd remember." "H-he never mentioned me...? He never said anythin' to ya about Jesse? The love of his life? The man who broke his heart? Not even an insult?" She looked at him. "Aren't you a little young to be dating someone his age?" Jesse fumed. "Never mind that! I can't believe he never said anythin' about me!" She shrugged. "Yeah... well... Maybe you weren't as important to him as you thought. I have to go talk to Reaper. Where is he?" She said, impatiently this time. "He's gettin' a medical procedure done. To reverse all that shit the evil queen did to him." She seemed stunned. "He's what?!" She ran past him and into the operating theatre.

She saw Angela panicked, with a Gabriel that looked more like some sort of storm cloud than a person. She was in tears as she desperately tried to stop Gabe from seizing. His body had some sort of a rejection of the replications of his own genes from his time as Soldier:24, and was causing him to violently have a seizure. "Hey, she said I can't go in there, what the hell do ya think yer- Gabe!? ANGELA, WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!?" She looked up at the window angrily. "Get out of here, you idiot! Take her too, whoever she is!" The woman backed off and grabbed Jesse's wrist, to which he resisted heavily. "Come on, you moron, leave her to her work!" She managed to pull him out of there, as Jesse began to sob.

When they were outside, she calmed down. "My name is Sombra. Gabriel asked me to come in to help with sabotaging Null Sector. I'd rather wait until he wakes up to introduce myself to the rest of your people, considering I knew him from a rather... criminal past." The two of them sat down, Jesse practically in shock. They sat in total silence until 45 minutes later, when Angela came out. "He's stable. The procedure was... mixed... in its results, but he's alive. He'll be asleep for awhile though." Jesse practically rolled out of his seat and sprinted to the bed where Gabe now lay. He cradled his face, whispering to him, "Everything'll be okay, you'll be okay...." Over and over, as Sombra stood, watching his life signs nervously. Gabriel began to stir, to Jesse's delight and Angela's surprise. When he opened his eyes, he could feel it. His cells were still dying and regenerating, albeit at a slower pace. But he could feel it. He could feel the pain that came with that level of chaos within his body. He hadn't been able to before, and years of feeling dead inside were replaced by agonizing pain.

For a moment, he wished he hadn't woken up.


	6. Request

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long time for Gabe. A REALLY long time. Meanwhile, Sombra makes headway on her mission to hack Null Sector. (Minor smut warning, nothing too graphic, though)

Angela watched as Jesse spent each passing day sitting at the bedside of Gabriel. After he had woken up for that brief moment, he seemed to drain himself rather quickly and passed out again soon, without even saying a word to Jesse. It was like that for a few days, all with close to no communication. Jesse badly needed a shower, but barring a threat from Angela to call Brigitte in to lecture him, he wasn't moving. "Alright, fine, have it yer way, yeesh, ya don't need to go and get her to talk to me like I'm a 3 year old that doesn't wanna take a bath..." Angela gave a single chuckle. "It feels that way, though..." She murmured to herself.

After he had left, Genji came in to check on Gabe. "Hello, Doctor," He announced himself, "How is he doing?" She looked up from her electronic clipboard. "Oh, hello, Genji. He's doing alright. He's been sleeping a lot, but his body is exhausted, the procedure appears to have taken a lot out of him. Genji placed a stuffed animal of a Chihuahua in a sombrero next to Gabe in the bed, prompting an eyebrow raise from Angela. "It was Jesse's when he and Gabe were still living together. After Reyes... you know... He practically couldn't sleep without it. For the first week, he cried himself to sleep every night clutching it. For awhile during that first few weeks, I thought he would... do something drastic, so I stayed with him." Angela smiled. "That was very kind of you, Genji. I'm sure he's very appreciative of that." Genji chuckled. "He was. Sometimes I felt like I was keeping too close of an eye on him, though." She cocked her head and set down the clipboard. "What do you mean?" Genji looked around. "Don't tell him I told you this... but Jesse really likes boy bands from the beginning of the century. When he got drunk, he'd sing along, even though he was really sad." Angela attempted to stifle her laughter, but couldn't and began to hysterically laugh at the thought of Jesse drunkenly singing along to N*SYNC, using a bottle of whiskey as a microphone.

She didn't notice that Gabe had begun to stir, waking up to the sound of the doctor finding something very amusing. "Reyes!" Genji shouted. "Are you alright!?" Angela stopped laughing and picked her clipboard back up, checking Gabe's vitals. "Mmhm... It hurts. All over." The dark purple smoke that was normally exuded from his half-incorporeal body was still coming out, albeit slower. "I can feel... _this."_ He stated, gesturing to the smoke. "I couldn't before. It really hurts." Angela clicked on a few things on the board. "Okay. We'll get you some lower level painkillers so you're still lucid." Gabe nodded. "Where's Jesse?" She sighed. "I'm sorry, I made him go take a shower, he was here the entire time you were out, holding your hand. Three days, by the way. He was starting to become a bio-hazard. Gabriel gave a wry chuckle. "Sounds like something he'd do." He noticed the plush. "Oscar...? Where did you..? Did Jesse leave this?" Genji raised his hand. "I did. He gave him to me a while after you... parted ways. He told me to do whatever I wanted with it, but I've always been sentimental, so I kept it." Gabe nodded. "Thanks, Genji... Is the purple girl here?" Angela nodded. "You mean Sombra? Yes, we've been wondering about her. She told us that you asked her here, and then she showed us your messages on the comm, Winston said he knew why she was there, they've been working nonstop for awhile. I told them about you, but they were so into their work I don't even think they heard me say anything."

Jesse came back into the room. "Are ya happy now, shower police? I made sure to clean everywhere, just to make ya happy ya little- Gabe!" He shouted, running and hugging him, causing Gabriel to recoil. "Easy, easy, easy, easy!" Angela shouted back at him. "He's in a lot of pain." Jesse frowned. "Oh... I'm sorry to hear that, darlin'... I'll stick around so ya ain't lonesome." Gabe smiled. With the way the cellular degeneration/regeneration worked, it made it a bit unnerving. Jesse wasn't fazed by this. "Well, I'll come back to check on you again in awhile." Jesse looked lovingly at Gabe while he stroked Oscar's fur. "I'll just... go." Genji said, suddenly becoming acutely aware of how hard he was third wheeling.

When the two of them were gone, Jesse looked around and crawled under the bedsheets with Gabe, wrapping his arms around him. "I missed holding you like this. You're still so warm." Gabe chuckled and ruffled his damp hair. "Your hair is wet... But if it weren't I'd bet it's still as soft as it was. It's been a long time, Jesse. A r-really long time... I actually got a bit of a favor to ask..." Gabriel bit his lower lip and stared at Jesse. Something about the way he said that bothered McCree and he looked up at Gabe, and saw how red his face was. "Are you kiddin'!? Gabriel, sweetheart, I love ya, but no way in hell am I gonna fuck ya after ya just woke up from surgery!" Gabe groaned. "Come on, Jesse, just be quick, the last time I got any was the last time we did, and that was YEARS ago! I've been busy!" Jesse laughed. "Busy is sure as hell one word for what you've been up to..." Gabe whined and tugged on Jesse's sleeve. "Fine, fine... Just be quiet, ya big baby..."

He took a deep breath and laid down on top of Gabe, nose to nose with him. He softly kissed Gabe at first, slowly becoming more and more intense. They took shallow breaths where they could and had their hands behind each other's heads holding each other. "I love you Jesse.." He breathily moaned as he could feel his surgical gown that he was in becoming more crowded. Jesse noticed the same for his sweatpants and leaned into this with a smirk, rubbing against Gabe as he continued to kiss him.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the base, Sombra and Winston gave a briefing on the outcome of their task. "I don't know how she did it, but she somehow designed a program that allowed her to actually become an admin of their system, rather than just giving her access to the files." Tracer leaned over to Mei and whispered to her, "Do any of what he's saying make a lick of sense to ya?" She shook her hand. "A little. I have a basic understanding of computers but I'm not an expert." Sombra explained, "I created a backdoor for myself into the mainframe of their system, allowing me to rewrite some of the most basic aspects of their entire network." "Aaaand, she lost me." Mei whispered, getting a snicker from Tracer. "What that did was, it allowed me to create my own profile as an administrator and I simply downloaded the files from there and deleted my fabricated profile." A silence fell over the group. The only person who seemed to understand or appreciate what she had done was Hana. "Wow, you were really able to do all that undetected?" Sombra shrugged. "Years of practice, I guess. Reaper called for the best, so the best is what he got." Morrison gave a hmph.

"How do we know the information can be trusted? How do we know YOU can be trusted?" He asked her. "You can't. All you have is my word and the datasheet. If you don't want it though, I'd be more than willing to pack up everything I've done, including that sheet, and getting out of here." Jack grit his teeth. "Why you little-" Angela suddenly became very concerned, seeing Gabe's heart rate was suddenly up near 160. "Something's wrong with Reyes!" She shouted, running back towards the medical wing, everyone else in pursuit.

Jesse exhaled shakily as he laid back over to his side, still gripping Gabe. He used the sheet to wipe some of the sweat from his forehead. "Angela's going to ask me about the surgery gown you know. I can't exactly tell her it was a side effect or something. Jesse chuckled, trying to inch away from the stickiness in his own sweatpants. "Why not? She doesn't know what happened to ya durin' that operation, ya could tell her ya saw a vision of the Virgin Mary and she'd believe ya." Gabe chuckled. "You're such a brat." He noggied Jesse and laughed as everyone came bursting in. "What-" "Gabe, what's wrong? Your heart rate got all the way up to-" Angela saw the stain seeping through the top layer of sheets, causing her to blush. "Oh, you two are gross! He was awake for what, five minutes and you needed to... wanted... _es_ _jemandem?_ Not to mention stupid, too, what kind of idiot would do that to him in his condition!?" Jesse pointed at Gabe. "Hey, it was his idea." She went over and grabbed Jesse by the ear and pulled him out of the bed, causing all to groan in disgust when they saw the dark colored stain on his sweatpants. "Sorry guys..." He meekly said. Gabriel chuckled, and Jesse looked back at him, giving a small but flustered grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up being a lot longer than I expected. As always, any suggestions to make the style better, leave it in the comments! Kudos are always appreciated!


	7. Reconnaisance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The location of Null Sector's next attack is identified, and the team begins to move out to prevent it.

After the incident in Gabe's hospital room, Jesse was forbidden from entering for another 48 hours, and ordered to take a shower by Angela before they all reconvened in the lounge where Winston and Sombra were briefing everyone on Null Sector's next move.

"Anyway... Before we were interrupted," Winston glared. Jesse blushed and averted his eyes as he felt everyone silently burn holes into him. "We were going to reveal that Null Sector appears to have their next attack planned for Oslo. We checked the rest of the datasheet and it's matched up to coordinates near cities that have already been attacked. We've analyzed the possible attacking points of the city, and it makes sense to us that Null Sector will most likely try to attack by advancing in submersible vehicles traveling up the fjord. We've already put most major cities on high alert to be prepared for an unexpected attack following the previous incidents, but considering Null Sector could be hacking us as we've hacked them, we cannot directly contact the Norwegians to warn them, and risk letting Null Sector know we have their code."

Tracer raised her hand. "But Winston, won't they know we've broken their code when we're there as soon as they attack?" Winston nodded. "That is a real concern, but we've done our best to make it look like we were heading to Oslo anyway to meet with leaders there to discuss how trade in the region might be affected by continued incidents." Pharah scoffed. "Since when is Overwatch the European Union?" Ana shushed her. "Quiet, Fareeha. She does raise a point though. Winston, would it not be better to have this quote unquote 'trade meeting' in Stockholm so we could be there within the hour and not look like we knew it was coming?" Winston briefly conferred with Sombra, who responded for him. "We'll take that into consideration. The attack will happen in around 35 hours, so please get ready as soon as you can. Since Reap... _Gabriel_ is not feeling well enough to join us, I'll be coming with you instead." This information drew murmurs from the crowd. "Captain America over there will be using a type of torture device that shocks me if I get more than 20 feet away from him, so don't worry about my running off or anything."

After the meeting was adjourned, Jesse immediately went to Angela. "Hey Doc," he began. "Let me guess... You want to say goodbye?" He wryly chuckled. "Ya read my mind." She smiled. "Fine. Five minutes. You have to get ready too, you know." He hugged her. "Just don't do anything that could tire him out there, you pervert!" Jesse chuckled as he ran to Gabe's room, who grunted sorely as he lay up. "Hey, _vaquero_ , what are you doing here, I thought Angela kicked you out." Jesse kissed him softly before responding. "We're going to fight. I just wanted to say goodbye." He nodded. "I wish I could go with you." He reached out and touched Jesse's face. "I wish ya could go too. I'll be sure to text while I'm on the Aurora, so ya better answer within five minutes or I'll freak." He chuckled and kissed him one more time. "Bye, Gabe." "See you later, cowboy."

Jesse ran off to get his stuff together quickly and boarded with the others. "Thanks, Doc. I really needed that." She smiled. "No problem. But when we get back, you're still not allowed to go in there for another 48 hours." He groaned. "Aw, what!? But it'll take us 48 hours at least to deal with the whole thing!" She chuckled. "I know. Even if he is well, this is just my punishment for making everyone see the aftermath of your... erm... intense 'cuddling'." He groaned and blushed again.

Meanwhile, Jack met with Ana. "Do you really trust that hacker to not try and do something to the device?" She asked him, prompting a nod. "Unless she can simultaneously fight off a flood of Omnics and try and disable the system, which I had Winston program to activate if anyone other than yours truly or Winston tries to tamper with it. I think we'll be alright." She nodded. "What about Gabriel?" "What about him?" He retorted. "He's incapacitated for the time being, which means anything he might be trying to pull is put on standby for now." Ana nodded. "What about Jesse? He still seems to be totally and utterly convinced of Gabe's sudden transformation." He sighed. "I know. The boy is too trusting of him. You think he would have learned his lesson." "He's in love, Jack. I'm not sure he was ever not in love when Gabriel wasn't... himself. It must have pained him terribly to see the man he loved in such a state. Which is why he was so willing to accept him again when he came bursting back into his life by saving it."

When the ship had landed in Stockholm, nearly everyone dispersed to wander the city, their comm devices showing them a countdown of the time until the strike. Sombra groaned. "Do I really have to follow you around all day? Even to the lame trade meeting? I'd rather be shocked than sit through that snooze-fest." Jack chided her, "Well, if we want to look like we're actually in the dark about the upcoming incident, we have to go through with the act, and keep a low profile. Speaking of which, what the hell are you wearing? You couldn't dress casually or in business like I did like everyone else?" She shrugged. "I have a personality to uphold through my appearance. Don't knock it just because you don't look unique." Jack sighed. "You look like a cartoon character from the 2030s." She snickered. "I liked the old school look, is there something wrong with that?" He raised an eyebrow. "When you want to keep a low profile, yes."

Jesse spent most of his time wandering around with Genji and Brigitte, who was excitedly showing the two the city and telling them about Swedish culture. "I actually grew up somewhat far from here, but I visited a couple of times as a kid and a lot more as an adult, so I somewhat know my way around here. I know the best places for food, at least in my opinion and," She went on to talk about how much better Gothenburg was than Stockholm, but Jesse spent the entire time texting Gabe while Genji showed genuine interest. "Kinda nervous. Don't want to end up seeing you bc I'm in the bed next to you lol" "You'll be fine, J. Just stay calm, there's a lot of you guys this time. You got this, _vaquero_ " Jesse smiled.

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, Null Sector submarines began their approach to Oslo hours earlier than expected. "Thank you for your tip, Doctor. We would have been totally caught off-guard by a prepared Overwatch Strike Team. How did you come by your information?" She smiled on the other end of the comm. "Well, let's just say I know someone with a close connection to the new Overwatch. If they make a full comeback, my continued research would have been seriously threatened, so please, do what you can to ensure their revival is halted." "Will do, Doctor. Thank you again."


	8. Reclaim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Overwatch receives news that the attack on Oslo has occurred sooner than expected. The former members of Blackwatch find a familiar face assisting Null Sector.

Everyone in Stockholm received an urgent message on their Comm units. "EVERYONE. 911. BACK TO THE AURORA. IMMEDIATELY. ATTACK HAPPENING EARLY." Jesse felt his heart freeze for a second before sprinting off back towards the Aurora, with Genji way ahead of him. "What the hell happened?" He asked, out of breath as he sat down in his seat on board the Aurora with the others still coming in one by one. Ana responded, not looking up from her Comm. "They just started their strike early. No matter, we'll still be there in time to take care of them. Did you happen to know where Jack and the hacker went?" Jesse shook his head. "I don't, but I think I heard him mention somethin' about..." He was interrupted by their return. "Sorry, foot traffic was a little congested and it was hard to stay within the distance limit. We the last ones?" He looked around, seeing all of the seats filled except his. "Good. Let's move out."

The Aurora took off and sped towards Oslo. "Did you have anything to do with this?" Brigitte pointedly asked Sombra. "Oh please, I've been with you people the entire time. Plus, why would I sabotage my own work and let them know they've been had by the greatest hacker to ever pick up a keyboard?" Brigitte grumbled and crossed her arms. "I still don't trust you." She sighed. "Look here, _pendejo_ , I'm getting paid a good deal of cash and immunity from being arrested if I help you. I have no reason to be against Overwatch, and the faster you realize that the faster we kick Omnic ass. Understood?" "That's enough, you two. It doesn't matter why they're there early right now, fact of the matter is they are." Ana cut in, silencing the both of them. As the Aurora approached the besieged city, Jesse clumsily texted Gabe. "Pulling up to the city now. It looks really rough. If something happens, I love you <3" He sent the message and put his comm back into its place.

"Alright everyone." Jack announced. "We're going to be splitting into 3 groups, since it looks like they're coming in from three different routes and landing. I'll lead one squad, Ana will take another, Rein will get the third. Sombra is obviously with me, as are Mercy and Winston, Ana, you get Jesse, Genji, and Hana, and Reinhardt, you'll be going with Brigitte, Torbjorn, Mei and Lena. Everyone understand?" "Yes, sir!" They all responded in unison. "Good. Here's the plan." He projected a map of the city, and circled the three locations of their submarines. "These are approximately where their subs are. We're going to blow a hole in their hulls and on their exterior control centers, the part sticking up if you're unfamiliar. Lena, you're going to try and get a pulse bomb on one, Hana, you're going to detonate a suit as close to one as you can, and I'll fire a Helix Rocket at the third. If we can drown their subs, we should be alright to start fighting the ones already in the city. But it's going to be a fight, these boats are pretty big, and there's a LOT of Omnics in them. It'll be a fight as soon as you all set foot on the sub to get there, but we can do this!" They all cheered and the Aurora landed on the far side of the fjord, behind a rock formation so that the Omnics wouldn't see them land.

"Alright, get in the boats, they're auto pilot." They all got into their little motorboats and turned them on. "We got this, guys. Let's do it." They nodded and the boats sped off, each of them carrying their respective members to their destinations. It wasn't until they were a quarter of a mile away that the Omnics even noticed them sneaking up from behind, but by that point it was too late to try and stop them before they got to the submarines. Each mini-team got up onto their target sub, and chaos ensued with the hordes of Omnics flooding the decks to stop them.

Jesse threw a flashbang and ducked as Genji lunged forward with his blade, cutting about 5 Omnics in half. Hana used her thrusters to knock half a dozen off the side and into the water below. She fired her rockets at the hull, but wasn't able to make much of a dent. "Dammit! This metal must be reinforced well!" She felt an Omnic crawl onto her APM before Ana sniped it off. "Keep pushing forward, we can do this!" Jesse shouted as he rolled forward and emptied his Peacekeeper, taking out another few Omnics. Genji was stuck by one square in the chest and was knocked onto his back, with the wind knocked out of him as well. "OOGH!" He struggled to get up, and 3 omnics advanced, firing at him. He tried to deflect, but was only moderately successful and still took a few shots. "I... need healing!" He weakly cried as Ana fired a restoration vial at him. He got up. "Thank you!" He shouted before going ahead with the flashbang/sword lunge move again with Jesse, giving him a small fist bump as he flew threw the air above him, prompting a cocky smirk from Jesse below.

On another sub, Reinhardt charged forward, taking out at least 15 Omnics before he hit a guard railing, grunting as the force caused an Omnic to be destroyed by the guardrail. Torbjorn planted a turret right at the back that kept firing as he fired his nails at the ones advancing towards Brigitte, who was faring well enough on her own as she used her modified mace to lash at the hostiles. Lena moved herself behind one of the waves and fired, taking out a good number before they even knew she was there. Meanwhile, Mei focused her efforts on targeting a different cluster and raised an ice wall, launching them into the water. Unfortunately, this trapped Tracer, who emptied her clip and took a shot or two before transporting herself back to the rear of the submarine. "Oh, Lena, are you alright? I didn't mean to-" "I'm fine, don't worry about it." She said, giving Mei a thumbs up. "Let's just keep going!"

At the same time, all three strike squads were able to get to the exterior control center at the same time, simultaneously activating their attacks on the submarines. Morrison fired his Helix Rockets at both the side of the sub and the control center, blowing a sizeable hole in the hull and damaging their operations. Hana blew off nearly a fifth of the ship she and her squad attacked by firing her missles at the side and then activating self destruct below the controls. Lena, on the other hand, had more trouble than the others, with her pulse bomb not able to do terribly much damage on its own, but was able to puncture the hull and lightly damage the control tower on the ship. She spoke into her comm unit, "I could use some help, the bomb did nothing!" She shouted, and at the same time both Jack and Hana fired rockets at the port side of the ship, Jack's Helix Rockets flying over the bow of the center ship and directly striking the other side of the hull, while Hana's rockets damaged the control center.

All three of the groups rushed back to their miniature speedboats as the submarines began to sink, first slowly and then speeding up as the fires the bombs and rockets had caused spread within the ships. They headed towards the main city with the ground offensive in the city no longer receiving any orders from the ships. The enemy combatants turned around and saw the smoke rising in the distance, turning back towards the ships to find the source of their yet unknown attackers. Waiting in a building on the waterfront of the port, Dr. Moira O'Deorain saw the speedboats leaving the sides of the sinking ships and huffed. "So be it." She left her building and waited in hiding for Overwatch to arrive.

The 12 members of the strike squads reconvened at a small restaurant away from the places that Null Sector was attacking. "By now they'll have noticed us," quipped Jack, "We need to be careful. Same squads, all of us have to do our part to take down the hostiles. We can do this, people, we'll just have to work quickly. The military police should already be around and doing what they can, so we'll have their backup if need be. Let's move out."

The rest of the strike went on without a hitch, with all members efficiently dealing with their hordes of Omnics in a stylish fashion. Moira stood in hiding as the group reconvened and prepared to throw a Biotic Orb at them, in an effort to take care of those who were already injured and not expecting another attack, let alone one so unexpected. Just as she began to charge, she heard a message in her earpiece. "I know you're in Oslo. Don't blow your cover, or they'll know there's a mole. I'm pretty sure Morrison, or whatever the hell he call himself now suspects me already." She sighed. "They're hurt. Why can't I finish off a few of them now and you can get out of there?" The other voice sighed. "If I leave now, I'll be in pretty bad shape, I'm not sure if you heard, but things didn't go so well." She chuckled. "Well, I hope they went better from when I had my hands on you." The rough, gravelly voice of Gabriel Reyes grunted on the other line. "Shut up. I'm trying to have that damage undone as we speak." "Whatever you say. I just hate to see what happens when Jesse finds out." She laughed as she walked away, and Jesse McCree froze in his tracks as he thought he heard a ghost cackling at him from his past.

"Jesse, are you okay?" Angela asked, seeing how pale he had become all of a sudden. "Fine... I just thought I heard somethin', that's all." He forced a smile as he and the rest of the group went to reclaim Oslo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long to those who keep up with this! Coronavirus has been making my life a bit chaotic on my college campus so I didn't have much time to write this one!


	9. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe does therapy pt. 2, Jack, Ana, Reinhardt and Mercy discuss the possibility that Null: Sector was tipped off to the knowledge of their next attack, and who they think might be responsible. Jesse discusses something disturbing with Genji.

"Do you feel guilty at all?" Gabe clutched the pillow as he laid back on the couch, digging his fingers into the plush cushion. "Guilty? Guilty about what?" Angela scribbled. "Guilty about what you've done. For Talon, against Overwatch, betraying Jesse, for really any of the things you say you regret." Gabriel laughed. "Angela, the sense of guilt is about all I can feel these days. Even when I'm sitting in my bed at night, I'm haunted by everything. Jesse seems to have forgiven me, but he was always so eager to make me happy. Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve him. Hell, I always feel like I don't deserve him." Angela scribbled again. "I see... Does it affect your relationship at all, this sense of being 'unworthy' of his love?" Gabe sighed, squeezing the pillow a little bit tighter. "I suppose so. I still feel awkward asking him to grab dinner or something, or telling him that I love him. We aren't sleeping in the same bed, and I tell him it's because they're too small, but I think even if they weren't I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't feel like he should trust me enough to sleep with me and make himself so vulnerable near me." "Are you thinking of hurting him?" "No, no! I would never... Not again, anyway..." He pulled the pillow up to his mouth and loudly sighed into it. "I just... It's all a part of that sense that I don't deserve him." "Well, he accepted your marriage proposal all those years ago, did he not?" "Well yeah, but that was before-" "And he accepted you back into his life recently, too, no?" "Yes, but-" "Then that's all there is to it. Jesse loves you, Gabriel. It can be hard to forgive yourself, but the sooner you start making peace with the past, the sooner you can start to feel happy again." "Well, how do I forgive myself, then? I've done some really shitty things, if you don't remember." "I'm aware, but you need to move past that and start contributing again in a positive way." "Well, what if I never feel like I've done enough?" "You won't."

Meanwhile, Jack met Ana in a deserted corner somewhere in the new HQ. "Just what did you drag me out here for, Jack?" She tiredly asked. "Look... Call me crazy, but why would Null: Sector launch their attack early? They've been totally on the dot for each attack so far, why did they deviate from their plans now, when we've figured out their courses of action for the foreseeable future?" Ana sighed, "Morrison, you're paranoid, we placed it on our own computers' itineraries that we were going to Stockholm, now we know that Null: Sector is watching us, so we know we have to continue to be careful about how we respond. Winston and that girl Gabriel called are working on a plan right now about it." Jack sighed. "No, but you don't get it. Even if they thought we knew what they were up to, they'd deviate. And unless that girl isn't as good as she says she is, they know what's happening. They know what the plan is, and they know that we're going to be ready for their next attack. They didn't just reason their way through that. Someone had to have let them know. And it wasn't Sombra, since she was with me the whole time. I think you can see where I'm going with this." Ana sat down on a windowsill and put her head in her hands. "Oh, Jack, please give it a rest, Gabriel has no part in this, don't be such a fool! Look, I don't trust him very much either, but if Gabriel Reyes wanted us dead, we'd be dead already." Jack grit his teeth, and called up Reinhardt, telling him to meet with the two of them, as well as Dr. Ziegler.

"What is the meaning of this?" Reinhardt boomed in his thick accent as he met the two of them, causing Jack to flinch and shush him. "We're trying to not be conspicuous here! Keep it down!" Reinhardt whispered, "What is the meaning of this?" Ana nudged Jack, "Morrison here thinks Gabriel is feeding information to Null:Sector." Reinhardt looked at him and laughed. "What purpose would that serve? Gabriel wouldn't want to help the Omnics." Jack sighed. "You're both missing the point. If Overwatch returns to its former status, Talon would be threatened. The enemy of his enemy is his friend, and I think Reaper wanted us all to die out there to prevent the return of Overwatch. I've called Dr. Ziegler, who should be here soon, she should be able to tell us more."

Back in her office, Gabriel, grabbed another tissue from the box. He blew his nose and sniffled, his words barely intelligible through the sobbing that had suddenly come on. "I just... I just... What happened... to me?!" He apologized to Angela as she wrote down, "Deep insecurity, genuine remorse. Will require lots more therapy, possibly medication. SPEND TIME WITH JESSE." She looked at her comm unit. "911. Come to 3rd floor east wing. NOW." "Gabriel, I'm sorry, something's come up. Go spend time with Jesse, and spend lots of time with him. The more normal you feel around him, the better." He nodded as she got up and left.

"You had better have a good explanation for this, Jack, I was right in the middle of-" "Therapy, yes, I know. I need your notes on him." She was taken quite aback by this. "Absolutely NOT! Do you have any idea how unethical it would be to share my personal notes on-" "Don't make me order you." "You're going to have to! I've seen nothing that would indicate that he feels nothing but intense guilt over what he's done, and I have no reason to believe that he's telling me anything but the truth. Unless you're suggesting that in addition to being a talented fighter, he's also a talented actor?" "Angela Ziegler, I am ordering you to give me those notes. There's a decent possibility Null:Sector was tipped off to our knowledge of their impending attack, and that patient of yours is the prime suspect." The other two looked at her grimly, their grimaces causing Angela's heart to sink at the sight of their reluctant belief of Jack.

In the mess hall, Jesse couldn't focus. Genji sat down next to him, but he didn't even notice he was there until he was nudged. "Hey, Genj. What's up?" Genji shrugged. "You seem... distracted." Jesse nodded. "Yeah... somethin' happened in Oslo. I... It sounds ridiculous to say it out loud, but I don't know how else to explain it." Genji stared through him. "Well?" was all he asked. "I... I heard somethin'. When we were about to face off against the Omnics in the city itself, after the subs... we were all together. I could have sworn I heard someone laugh. Genji... It sounded like Moira." Genji didn't react at first. "Are you sure?" Jesse quietly nodded. "I mean... It'd make sense, yeah? She don't want us to come back, because she knows we'd catch her and put a stop to her research. Whatever the hell it is she's concoctin' now, that witch..." "Have you considered telling Morrison? Or Gabriel?" He shook his head. "I don't know WHAT to do with that idea. If she's out there tryin' to stop us, I'm scared shitless of what could happen. Even when I thought she was good, I was scared of her. And then, when I found out what she did to Gabe..." Gabe, who had cleaned himself up some and went looking for Jesse, weakly smiled when he saw him and Genji sitting together. "Hey, fellas." He said, sitting down, prompting a flinch from Jesse. "Just like old times, yeah?" Jesse forced a smile back. "Y-yeah... Just like old times. Listen, Gabe, there's somethin' I wanna-" "Jesse thinks Moira was in Oslo during the strike." "What?!" Gabriel nearly shouted. "Genji, I was gonna ease him into it!" "Well, now you don't have to." Jesse sighed. "Yeah. I think she was there. I think she was about 3 seconds away from killin' a good deal of us as well. Lemme tell ya what happened."


	10. Rebuttal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ana still doesn't really want to believe that Gabriel is the traitor. Jesse tells Overwatch leadership that Moira was in Oslo.

"Ana, what happened!? I had you on board with me about this yesterday..." Ana sighed, walking away from Jack. "Jack, not everything is a conspiracy! I get why you're nervous about Gabriel, and I sympathize with why you feel that way, but you read Angela's notes! Gabriel is legitimately remorseful about what happened! They said that he cried! When was the last time you saw him cry about anything?"

Jack grunted, gritting his teeth. "That's exactly my point. He could be putting on a show to make us think that he's all better now."

Ana pinched the bridge of her nose. "Would you listen to yourself? Say what you will about Gabriel Reyes, but the fact remains, if the mission had failed when he came back, if he hadn't shown up, you would be dead and the return of Overwatch would have been stopped in its tracks! There is nothing you can say to rebut that."

Jack put his hand on her shoulder, turning her around and shouting, "Why can't you just listen to me for once? If you had listened to me all those years ago, we probably would still be in Switzerland at the main operations center! He can't be trusted!" Ana scowled at him, and saw someone out of the corner of her eye. She instinctively pivoted to face who had happened upon their argument and saw Genji slinking away from the two of them. "Great," started Jack, "now that he knows I don't trust him, Jesse knows I don't trust him." Ana sighed. "You didn't even mention him by name." Jack gave a wry chuckle. "Who else would I be talking about?" Ana nodded, and was then silent for about 15 seconds. "Gabe is still recovering, and they're doing tests on him to make sure he's okay. I think that they made him leave all his metal in his room." Jack was puzzled. "What's that got to do with anything?" Ana started to walk, beckoning him to come with her. "Come. There's something I'd like to show you."

Jesse sat in the break room, slowly sipping a cup of black coffee with a newspaper in hand, and ignoring a peanut butter covered bagel with one bite taken out of it. "You gonna eat that?" Winston asked, passing through on his way to the computer room. "Go right ahead." Winston excitedly took the bagel and went off on his way. Jesse gave a small chuckle. Genji entered. "Are you reading about Oslo? You were there, what more do you need to know?" Genji smirked at him from behind his cybernetics. "I'm seein' if anyone says anythin' about seein' a certain ginger witch there, smartass. No luck, unfortunately." Genji sighed and sat down.

"There's something we need to talk about." Genji said after a minute or so of sharing an uncomfortable silence with Jesse. "Hm?" He looked up from the paper. "What is it?" Genji sighed, at a loss for words for a rare occasion. "Damn, it must be important," McCree chuckled, "You'd just blurt it right out otherwise."

"McCree, please. I overheard Morrison talking to Amari. He says he doesn't trust someone, and I'm certain he was talking about Reyes." Jesse cracked his knuckles. "Psh. Jack ain't Gabe's biggest fan? Tell me what else is new."

Genji responded with a wry chuckle, but reached out to hold Jesse's wrist. "He was being very emphatic about it. Practically screaming at Ana about how much he thought this certain someone was bad news." Jesse sighed and stood up. "I suppose I oughta give him a talkin' to." Genji wanted to tell him to not say anything, to not let Jack know he had heard what he said, but knew it was futile. "Where did ya see the two of 'em?"

Ana stood at the entrance to Gabe's room. "Jeez, Ana, you're really alright with doing this? I mean, I'd expect I would be alright with doing this, but not you." Ana shushed him and used her master key to open the door. Walking in, she looked around his room. Neat, well-organized and empty. Practically like no one was even living there, except for the shoes near the bed. As well as what she had been looking for, sitting right there on his dresser. She picked up the necklace with the ring around it, showing it to Jack.

"Here. Remember after he proposed to Jesse, the cowboy wanted to get him a ring of his own, so he took him to the jeweler and got him this. I remember him coming to me for advice on what kind of ring Gabriel would like." She smiled, remembering the faint flush on his face as he sheepishly asked her. "But even after everything, Gabriel kept it. Why?"

Jack scoffed. "This is your proof? That he kept a ring? He probably was planning on-" "Selling it? Jack, it's been almost a decade. He could have sold it, but he didn't. He kept it because deep down, he felt bad and wanted to fix things with the cowboy." Jack sat down on Gabriel's bed. "It all just feels too coincidental, though. I can't shake the feeling that someone's inside selling us out."

Jesse, looking through the hallways around where Genji said he saw them. No sign. He sighed and lit his cigar as he walked through the hallways past people's rooms to look, pausing when he got to Gabe's. He could hear them talking on the inside. He knocked on the door, and Ana opened. "Jesse, it is 10:30 in the morning. Don't you think you could wait to ruin your lungs until later in the day?" Jesse chuckled. "I'm afraid not. Plus, I think we both know we got other things to talk about. Well, me and Morrison do, at least." Jack stood up. "Genji told you that fast, huh? Listen, McCree, I'm not going to mak-" Jesse interrupted him, spitting back "I don't give a damn what you think, Jack. Gabriel ain't no traitor or whatever it is ya think he did this time. He's back, and he ain't goin' anywhere." 

"Jesse, please, don't be so quick to just immediately accept him." Jack softly pleaded. "No, I ain't. He's shown nothin' but good faith to us, and you act like he's plottin' to blow us all to kingdom come. Well let me tell ya somethin'. I ain't even sure about what he did all those years ago bein' his own fault." Jack seemed stunned by this. "Jesse, what the hell are you talking about?" Jesse huffed, blowing smoke out his nose. "Moira. All those tests she did on him, all those experiments... She was workin' for Talon long before Gabe started actin' weird in the slightest. She altered everythin' about who he was, and she turned him bad. Worse yet... I think Moira was followin' us in Oslo. If she's back, we gotta stop her before she hurts Gabe again. Or the rest of us."

This was news to both Gabe and Ana. "You think so?" Ana asked. "It's not entirely outside the realm of possibility. She could be trying to stop our comeback if she sees us as a big enough threat. Tipping off Null:Sector that we were nearby could have caused them to attack earlier than expected." Ana proposed as Jack stared blankly into space behind her. "If she knew about our movements though... then that confirms it. Someone in Overwatch is a mole. The knowledge we have one doesn't leave this room, got it? Jesse, you can't tell Reyes a thing, either."

Jesse scoffed. "Psh. Lemme take three guesses at who yer prime suspect is. It's probably that hacker chick who's workin' with Winston! Gabe didn't know enough about the mission to tell anyone, he's been on his ass in Angie's hospital bed for the past week! He can still barely walk, he ain't a threat in the slightest!" Ana reached out to place a hand on Jesse's shoulder but he scooted away. "Jesse, please calm down." He grit his teeth and narrowed his eyebrows. "No, I ain't gonna calm down, 'cause this guy's got such a grudge against Gabe that he'd be willin' to believe that Gabe took part in the plot to kill Kennedy, and that was a hundred fifteen years ago!"

Jesse started to leave, and Jack called after him, "Gabe, just don't tell anyone we think there's a mole. Please." He rolled his eyes back at him. "Yeah, yeah, I won't. Jackass."


	11. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moira continues her discussion on how to stop Overwatch with the mole, who in turn discusses her with Talon leadership. Gabe talks to Ana to try and go after Moira.

Gabriel wheeled himself into the meeting room with Jack. Winston had helped design one that would make movement as swift as possible through the facility, considering the several staircases Gabe would have to encounter on a daily basis. "Pardon me for not standing in the presence of greatness," Gabe ironically chuckled, "but I can't exactly stand much at all right now." Jack laughed a little, a wry smile cracking across his face.

"Look, Gabe," Jack started, "I know you talked to Jesse about this, but we really don't know if she's out there. He said he heard her laugh while we were all in Oslo, but he didn't physically see her. If she's anywhere, she's in the basement of some research facility with Talon. I doubt she's concerning herself with our return."

Gabe nodded and sighed. "That's what I thought at first as well... But if we're coming back, Talon is threatened. If Talon is threatened, her research is threatened. If her research is threatened... Well, then. I think you might see why she might want to take care of us before we can pose a real threat to stopping her from doing to others what she did to me."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "What, like everything that happened was her fault?" Gabriel sighed, "No, you know that's not what I meant, I meant that-" Jack cut him off. "What did you mean, then? I mean, it sounded to me like you were trying to push blame off of yourself. She did some terrible things to you, but by no stretch of logic can you hold her accountable for-" Gabriel in turn, cut him off. "I didn't say I was, you jackass. You're so up your own ass about being spiteful about me, you're going out of your way to get angry at me!"

The two of them remained silent for the next few minutes, Gabe glaring at Jack who was staring at the floor. "I know I fucked up. I'm reminded of it every fucking day." Gabe stated, breaking the silence. "So don't talk to me like I'm some unapologetic creep. I deserve a lot of shit, but I don't deserve that." Jack didn't respond.

Jesse sat with Genji outside the meeting room. "Whaddya think they're talkin' about in there?" Jesse asked. Genji gave him a puzzled look. "What else would they be talking about?" Genji responded, causing Jesse to slump in his seat. The cowboy slowly took a sip of his coffee as Genji simply sat there in silence.

"Sorta reminds me of old times..." McCree mumbled. Genji looked over. "Remember when we used to sit out here after a mission didn't go exactly accordin' to plan and we'd sit out here like we were at the principal's office while Gabe got chewed out for us?" He chuckled. "I miss those days." Genji sighed. "Those days were messy too. I remember them fondly, yet I cannot shake the memories of the chaos we caused, even in trying to do what was right. Jesse nodded slowly. "Yeah... I feel ya there."

Meanwhile, Moira sat alone in the dark room of her safehouse, some house that it'd take authorities years to find by guessing where it might be. "I imagine that you have some sort of plan to stop their discovery of you," Moira spoke into her communicator. "Considering they likely know that there's a mole somewhere in their ranks. If you're lucky, they think it's her." She heard Gabe chuckle through the communicator. "If I'm lucky? I know they think there's a mole. Sombra has been with Jack the whole time, you think that they suspect her at all? He's been looking at me sideways from the moment I came back.

"Yes, I can imagine that they might do that... Although you did say you were in a hospital bed for the past several days, did you not? I'd be surprised if he thought you were aware enough of their plans to betray them." The voice on the other line came through, "I was... but Jack likely figures that the cowboy told me everything. Which he did." Moira laughed. "You know, you really are one of the cruelest people I've ever known. Do you really have that poor boy believing you?" 

Back at the Overwatch Headquarters, Sombra typed away into her text to voice modulator, transmitting messages that sounded like Gabriel Reyes through to the other line. "I know. And I do. He fell for it, hook, line, and sinker."


	12. Reinstate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Reyes is officially reinstated into Overwatch as an active operative. His first mission: Find and capture (or neutralize, if need be) Moira O'Deorain.

"I believe congratulations are in order, darlin'." Came from the dark as Gabriel walked back into his room after officially being reinstated as an active member of Overwatch. Following the successful stoppage at Oslo, public support for Overwatch's return surged. Things were indeed looking up, as was Gabriel's recovery. Following Angela's advice, Gabe had started to spend more time with him, taking him camping to the roof for stargazing, buying overpriced wine and bullshitting their way through reviewing its flavor, seeing who could fit more marshmallows into Winston's mouth while he slept before waking him (Gabriel) and who could outrun him when he woke up (Jesse).

For the first time in a long while, Gabe felt happy. When he turned on the light in his room, it took all his effort to not laugh, seeing a naked Jesse sprawled out on the bed like he was about to be drawn like a French girl, fake necklace prop and all. They were both silent, hearing only the chirping of the crickets through the open balcony door as Gabe took off his shirt and hopped onto the bed with him, only able to kiss Jesse for a few moments before his comm unit started to buzz, causing both of them to groan.

"Yeah, Reyes here..." he reluctantly answered. "Good, it works. Get your ass down here, we got our first assignment for you." came Jack's surly voice through the other side. Gabe pinched the bridge of his nose. "O-oh, don't stop now, please!" Jesse moaned into the comm unit, prompting a shove and a chuckle from Gabe. "And tell Jesse to shut up, I heard AND saw enough of your... relationship... after I walked into your room after the Barcelona mission." Jesse flipped the unit the bird. "He's flipping you off, Jack." Morrison grunted. "Quit fucking around and just get down here, would you?" Gabriel sighed. "Aye aye, cap'n. You don't have to talk to me like I'm a damn rookie..." He ended the call and started to put his shirt back on. "Well, my little model, I have to go." He kissed Jesse on the forehead and gave him a small hug. "I'll be back later and we can do... whatever the hell you were planning. Oh, and shut the balcony door, I don't want a bunch of bugs coming in here." Jesse winked and blew an over-the-top kiss as Gabe left.

Jack glared at Gabe as he entered the room, who rolled his eyes in response. "So, what did you drag me away from getting some for the first time in... a long time for?" Jack rubbed his temples. "Look, if you're going to just be a horndog with Jesse, do it on your own time. You're an agent again, which means you'll be on my clock for a good deal of your time. "Fine fine, whatever. What's this all-important assignment you have for me?"

Jack sighed. "Well, we're putting you in charge of the taskforce to try and find Moira O'Deorain." Gabe was shocked. "E-excuse me!? When did she come back into the picture?" Jack noted his seemingly genuine surprise mentally. "Jesse says she was in Oslo. Following us." Gabe leaned back. "Yeah... I guess that'd make sense." Jack cocked his head. "Why do you say that?" Gabe shrugged. "Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? We're coming back, she doesn't want that, so she'd try and take us out. Why didn't she kill you guys if she was following you? Hell, how did she even know that you guys were going to be there to begin with?"

Jack grit his teeth, thankful his eyes were covered, negating the need for him to look Gabe in the eye. "We don't know." Gabe leaned back into his chair. "Well, do you know where she is now? Do you know where she went? Do you know of anyone who would know?" Jack shook his head. Gabe just sort of stared. "Well then, what the hell am I down here for?! How am I supposed to do this without the first clue as to where she could possibly be?" Jack didn't answer. "Alright, I assume that's it then," Gabe angrily said as he stood up. "I mean, if you can't tell me the first thing about my mission other than finding her, then I assume that my entire purpose was just bringing me down here to tell me what the job was without giving me any earthly idea how to do it." Jack quietly stated, "Dismissed. Go back to Jesse now."

Gabe entered the room where Jesse immediately scuttled himself back onto the bed into a seductive pose when he heard the door open. It looked like he hadn't bothered to redress himself. "Hello, Commander~ You know what they say, save a horse, yeah?" Gabe chuckled and collapsed onto the bed. "Sorry, Jess, I'm kinda pissed right now. Can we do this tomorrow morning?" Gabe took off his jacket and jeans and slipped under the covers, feeling the cowboy immediately wrapping himself around him. "Yeah, that's fine. Plus, morning sex is always more loving. It'll be better that way." Gabe chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it is... Are you going to put on any clothes at all?" Jesse kissed his cheek. "Nope. It ain't like there's nothin' ya haven't seen before down there." Gabe snorted, ruffling Jesse's hair. "No, I guess not." He wrapped his arms around Jesse and yawned. "Goodnight, Jesse." Jesse yawned back at him. "Goodnight, Gabe. Love ya..." Before long, they were both softly breathing out in each other's arms, asleep.

While they both slept, they were unable to notice the slightest movement of the balcony door as it appeared to move on its own. stepping silently through their room, invisible, Sombra pulled out her own communicator and prepared to hack both devices to transfer her phone records with Moira to Gabe's comm unit. She looked at the two sleeping and almost felt bad for a moment, before shaking this off and smirking as she got back to her dirty work.


End file.
